| Sumario: | A commentary on Pan Suk Kim and Gregory Lewis's “Asian Americans in the Public Service: Success, Diversity, and Discrimination, which appeared in Public Administration Review, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 285-290. The authors state that Asian Americans experience discrimination within the federal service, suggest that the problem is pervasive and serious, and propose remedies. However, the statistical disparities cited in their article need not necessarily be interpreted as discrimination, as plausible alternatives to the discrimination hypothesis can be formulated. One alternative could be the immigrants' loss, or educational devaluation, hypothesis. Education's contribution to productivity is often contingent upon linguistic and cultural contexts, and thus, immigration can devalue human capital. Another alternative may be the occupational choice hypothesis, which posits that individuals' occupational choices are often influenced by the previous choices made by family members and ethnic counterparts. The writer discusses the two alternative hypotheses in detail.
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